The Rise of the Ancients
by LinkinYM
Summary: When the report of a fairy death soon turns into the conflict between two societies, Haven and The Ancients, all-out chaos ensues. The fate of both now lies in the hands of Artemis Fowl and Holly Short. Finished
1. Chapter 1

_Hello, and welcome to my first fanfic. As I may seem to have errors in this, please let me know in reviews if you notice any. Also, due to the lack of people reading this as there only seems to be 1 review, I will terminate this project if I don't get more than 5 reviews in 1 week. Please don't make me do this, as I already wrote the next 3 chapters worth. Thank you for your understanding. EDIT done on 12/13/09_

Chapter 1/Prologue

Ancient times

"The Divide"

Even as the hard rain kept on falling, faster than a bullet, the fairy people were struggling at the fight against the Mud men. It was a tragic fact, that they had to be pitted against each other like this, as in a time long before, there was peace. When a fairy could roam on the surface, with no fear of being spotted or lynched, and where they still didn't realize the true cruelty and the real motivation for all of the Mud men; greed.

"We can't hold this up for much longer, we are running out of time!"

The fairy soldier was screaming at his leader, in a voice of both despair and confusion. After shaking him, however, he realized that his leader unfortunately had his head pierced by an arrow. Not even the greatest of magic could have healed that.

"How can we stop them? We have nowhere else left to go!"

Another soldier was talking to the former, and conversation soon turned to the cruel realization, that they truly do have nowhere else left to go. Out of the darkness, however, a fairy stood up. His dark tones skin and his crimson hair, showed that he was indeed, an elf.

"We do have one other choice lads! We cannot stop them, as they are too great in number! We must live to fight another day, and go underground!"

When he said that, not even the projectiles that hit the fortifications and the war-like roars of the mud men, could drown out the breath of shock that immediately was followed by the murmurs of caution and questioning. Everybody knew that the world below was a dangerous place, filled with all sorts of evil creatures few even survived from.

"Think about it! We will…" He was suddenly interrupted as the large crashing sound of a large boulder crushing one of the last walls that they had left as cover. But what hurt the fairies' hearts was the dying screams of their fellow fairies, as the cracks of their bones and the tearing of their skin and flesh struck every fairy's heart with sorrow. Even though those sounds were to scar him for the rest of his long life, he continued. "We will die if we try to fight! We have better chances below ground! We can start once more, and in secret!"

"And if we die? What will become of us? What will become of the last fairy? What will become of our species?"

A goblin stood up, and started to talk, louder than the fairy.

"Why should we go with you? Who gave you the authority?"

Many fellow goblins around him nodded in agreement.

"Let it be this way, goblin. Whoever wants to fight, stay with him. Whoever wants to live, come with me. Your choice."

The large group of soldiers, civilians, and many other fairies split faster than a waterfall. Some had their families separated, while others had to say farewell to their friends. Only time will be able to tell whose decision was the right one.

The fairies who stayed to fight, just stood there on the spot, while the fairies who decided to go underground, fled to a forest. After about an hour of running or more, everybody took a break. During this, the elf started to give out instructions.

"Very well. All dwarves, dig as deep and fast as you can. We can start to rebuild in there. Build chambers and resting areas."

Right when he mentioned this, some of the fairies showed signs of disagreement, as everybody knew that dwarf tunnels were lined with their scat. The dwarves showed no sign of disobeying, and dug quickly. However, the plan went too smooth, when the dwarves came back up to the surface in less than half an hour.

"We found something."

The elf asked,

"What is it?"

"A massive underground cave, no exit or entrance except for the one we made."

"How many can it fit?"

"No idea. Over five hundred thousand as a guess."

"Make a bigger passage. I think you guys just found our new home."

3 years later…

The elf who led the fairies underground was crowned the king of the place until further notice, and was praised by many. In fact, word spread among the fairies that were still aboveground, and started to go to the entrance.

The reforming process was easy and the place, later known to be Haven, flourished.

However, the tragic news which followed devastated every fairy, from elves to gremlins. The king stood in his chair, as the scout reported to him everything he saw.

"How does it look?"

The scout, who conveniently was a sprite, reported,

"Well the good news is, that the conflict stopped."

"Who won?"

"Nobody's left."

"What do you mean by nobody?"

"Every last fairy above ground is dead."

"Well there has to be some people left!"

"No sir. I saw the last ones being executed and burned."

"D'Arvit! Those Mud Men."

And every since that day, the Elfin King Frond decided that after his death, there will be no king like the wretched Mud Men, and let the citizens vote on what to do. And they lived peacefully after that, with the occasional goblin-dwarf turf wars. Until Artemis Fowl the Second came into the picture frame.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Present day.

How many years seemed to pass for the elf. The question resounded in his head, as he sat in the chair and looked out of the window. Along with the others, he was one of the survivors of the war, and the Mud Men believed that they were extinct. No, not even a mind-wipe was needed. The ignorance of the Mud Men was plain enough.

His size and magic was enough for him to be able to blend in. He was able to live among the Mud Men. He did a good job at that too. Just got a small house in the suburbs, and kept to himself in the dense forest. But the truth was that he was dying. Even though they can live for a thousand years or more, they will eventually die. However, what he didn't know was that he will die sooner than he thought.

His small wooden door started to shake insanely, with the sound of knocking accompanying it. When he rose weakly and opened the door, to be faced by a human, wearing a black trench coat and black jeans. In fact, everything he was wearing was black, from his fedora hat to his boots. He was about six feet tall and had pale skin, the color of thin milk.

"Do you want to take what was ours back?"

That was all that the stranger asked.

"What are you talking about? Now go away."

The old fairy did not have much time to spare, and just wanted to end peacefully.

"To kill all of the Mud Men, and reclaim the world. Do you want to join?"

The stranger briskly moved some of his long, black hair out of his face and looked the old fairy straight in the fairy's face, using his pitch black eyes. His gaze seemed to pierce the fairy like a laser.

"No."

Right when the elf said this, he realized his mistake. But he had no time for defending himself as the man in front of him grabbed his throat with clawed, thin, and tattooed fingers, and instantly ripped the unfortunate elf's throat out like ripping paper. After throwing the body further into the room, the figure quickly entered, his trench coat fluttering with the wind.

* * *

5 hours later

Lower Elements

Even though she was getting used to the fact that she traveled in time not too long ago with Artemis Fowl, Holly Short was allowed to be back into Recon. It all seemed to rush by her like a blizzard, and even though Opal Koboi escaped, Holly was determined to find her.

'But not without a shake.' She thought and after pulling one conveniently out of her fridge, she quickly went to the LEP to start work once more.

However, the first thing that happened when she arrived was that she was called to Commander Kelp's office.

"Really, at this kind of a time?" she grudgingly thought.

When she entered though, instead of a long, and insanely boring lecture about what she was thinking during her little "time-traveling" adventure, she was instead given very saddening and grave news.

"I don't know whether you would recognize this as anything related to you, but a fairy was found dead about 5 hours ago."

"Does Section 8 know the cause of death?"

"No. It seems logical that an animal attacked him due to his wounds, but it doesn't make sense."

"Why?"

"You should know this as well as I do but when an animal attacks, it usually tries to wound its prey to keep it from escaping. But in this case…" During this pause, Commander Kelp pulled out a manila folder. Out of it, he pulled out three pictures. Two of the crime scene, and one of a body. He quickly hands all three to Holly. "The wound on his neck would have been more than enough to kill him."

"Should we have a larger investigation over this?"

"Maybe. Our suspicions are primarily on either animal attack or…Artemis Fowl."

The silence that struck the room could have let you hear a beetle drop. Holly couldn't believe her ears at the first moment she heard this, but collected herself and continued.

"I don't think Artemis could have done this. Could he?"

Lowering his voice to a whisper, Kelp said "I also have my doubts, but the Council is becoming very cautious about the situation."

Holly decided that she can't waste her time talking any more, and went for a more straight forward course of action.

"May I have authorization to go above-ground and investigate the scene myself?"

"Hmmm… Only to investigate?" After that sentence he added a wink.

"Yes."

"Authorization granted."


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey guys! This is LinkinYM here with the third chapter! Just to let you guys know, Im new to this kind of a thing, so any questions, comments, or suggestions are really helpful. Anyway, Enjoy!  
_

* * *

Above ground

Summer in Ireland is always the same for most people every year. Have a small vacation and go back to school, or just keep on going to work. But not for some people.

In the light of a workshop, the brow of Artemis Fowl was sweating with the number of hours that he has spent on his new project. He looked at the part of the result of his long hours of work, as he lifted up a glove which appeared to be covered in a metallic armor of some sort. Right when he was about to don his creation though, Butler rushed in and gave Artemis a paper.

"Artemis, you should see this."

"What is it?"

"Your fairy detection program found something in this photo."

Artemis looked at the photo for a while and saw what the computer detected as a high priority object. The whole picture showed a number of policemen surrounding a small urban house, but the digitally enhanced section of it showed a face of a fairy. After putting the glove down, he exited the workshop and went to his room of computer screens. Butler, who was right behind Artemis, asked a question which he usually asks.

"What could it mean, sir?"

"We can either assume two things. One, either the LEP was sending some kind of message to us, which is highly unlikely considering the circumstances. Or two, there is something there which the LEP don't want anyone else, including us, to get. I intend to get it."

"Course of action?"

"Let us take the car, then."

* * *

Right when Holly landed at the crime scene, all of the Mud Men police were gone. For now. Thankfully, fairies no longer had to ask for an invitation to enter the house of a Mud Man, as that was removed by the demon warlocks not too long ago.

"Wow. That's a sad excuse for a house. Even for Mud Men."

The voice of Foaly the centaur broke the silence.

"I'm not too surprised."

"Foaly, how many times did I tell you not to listen in on me?"

"Sorry. Just what the helmets do."

Quickly shaking that little confidence booster off, Holly entered the house which seemed to have been built perfectly for fairy standards. Right when she entered though, she felt a sudden chill through her spine, the feeling you get when you step into a cooler. She checked the temperature, and it registered at a normal 35 degrees Celsius. Normal around these areas. She continued to look at the walls, decorated with various trinkets of old times and spatters of blood. Holly approached the body, and began to examine the wounds on it with careful precision.

'These marks are all inconsistent with any of the animals around this are that I know of. But if an animal didn't do it, then what did?' she thought.

She immediately identified the body as that of an elf, with the skin turned white-blue with death. But the computers in her helmet couldn't identify who it is, with the new software and programs Foaly built into it.

"Hey Foaly."

The crunching of carrots was followed by a response."Hmmm?"

"Can you give me a ID on this body?"

A response wasn't necessary, as the mad tapping of key board keys was clearly hearable.

"Just searched everything that the LEP has access to from here. There is no match for this face, not even in the Haven or Atlantis historical archives. Hate to say it, but we can't ID him."

"How's that possible? The last fairies on the surface died out in the ancient ages."

"Might have to run a full database search with global resources, but so far, I have nothing about this guy."

"He could be older than the Haven system itself."

"Impossible. The Mud Men killed them all…didn't they? Anyway, I'll be back once I get some answers. Foaly out."

Holly was once again left alone, as she observed the corpse's face. She could not help but wonder what killed this poor elf so brutally. She also had no idea that it was right above her.

* * *

Deimos Trakh looked down at the new figure in the room, as she remained oblivious to his presence. She seemed to talk to herself but after enhancing his hearing, he could tell that she was talking to someone else. As his gaze quickly followed the figure who began observing the body, he started to consider his choices. To recruit her or eat her. His thoughts started to collide in his head.

'I was ordered to either recruit or extinguish the fairy! I don't think that I should kill another one! But then again, she does look like fresh blood… Yeah. He probably won't mind one more.'

He could not help but start drooling with hunger. The bloodlust in his mind began to overwhelm him, and he could not help but smell the fresh blood in her. Far too long has he not fed, and he was determined to feed again. He realized that his chance might have escaped when his drool made a splat on her helmet.


	4. Chapter 4

_OK, so just as a thank you to anyone who has been reading my story so far. But due to the lack of people reading this as I only seem to have gotten 1 review, if I don't get over 5 reviews in one week I'll have to terminate this project. Please don't make me do this, as I already wrote the next 3 chapter's worth of story-line. Thank you for your understanding._

Chapter 4

Drip.

Holly instantly reacted by rolling backward and pulling out her Neutrino 3000. But when she looked at the source of the drop of saliva, she saw nothing but a patch of the ceiling. She quickly lowered her gun and just thought that it was a drop of water. As she approached her previous position though, she noticed claw marks in the ceiling which led across the walls and…

"Got you."

She could only hear a voice as the figure quickly grabbed her shoulders and spun her around, only to hold her 3 feet off the ground by her neck. Her natural reaction was unlike nothing anyone else would have thought to do in this kind of a situation. She played dead, and hoped that the thing would drop her.

"Do you really think that playing dead will work? I can feel your pulse through this suit you're wearing you know."

Holly's head instantly jerked up. "You don't know what you're dealing with, human."

'Why do I feel like I said that before?'

The figure before her started laughing and in the process, dropped her while clutching his gut with the euphoria. Holly immediately took this opportunity to break the person's thumb before taking a couple of steps back. The figure stopped laughing after a while, and rose to his full height once more. He also seemed perfectly oblivious that his thumb was broken

"I must introduce myself. Deimos Trakh. Son of…actually, cone to think of it, I forgot whose son I am."

"I don't care." Responded Holly. "What are you, and why are you here?"

"I am neither man nor fairy, and I was given the choice of either recruiting or killing the poor chap there." Deimos gestured to the rapidly rotting corpse. "It's a shame really. We could have used his experience."

"Who's 'We'?"

"None of your concern. Unless you want to join."

"No. By the time the rest of the LEP are here, we'll have you…"

"Subject to a mind wipe, yes I know. We have been putting surveillance on you people for a while."

Holly was shocked at the fact that this person knew about the fairy people, if not the mind-wipe. Her widening eyes grew even wider ass she witnessed his broken thumb healing itself back together faster than any healing she ever saw. She started to plot the best course of action right now. To escape. Right when she took a step back though, Deimos rushed up to her and grabbed her throat again with superhuman speed. Fast, even for a Fairy. His eyes, black as the night, pierced through her visors and stared into her eyes. She noticed a pendant he was wearing, that on a silver chain there was a smiling bronze sun with eight wavy points sticking out of it. It had a striking resemblance to the Snapple sun.

"I am sorry, but I have told you far too much now." His teeth slowly began growing sharper with the brightness of silver, and his claws slowly began digging through her neck guard, straight to her arteries. "I promise this will not hurt." Deimos pulled Holly's ear right next to his mouth and whispered, "Not for me anyways."

"That might not, but this will." Said Artemis Fowl, right before Butler shot Sig Saur rounds straight through Deimos's legs and his arms.

Deimos reactively dropped Holly yet again and this time, started screaming in pain as he looked at the holes through his arm. Holly took this precious time to run back and pick up the Neutrino she dropped and refocused it on Deimos, whose wounds she saw was rapidly sealing themselves back up.

"Sorry I was late."

Artemis briskly said when Holly realized that he was right behind her.

"Could have taken him down myself you know."

"Now, what good would that has been if you are dead?"

As Deimos began to stand up, Butler kicked him back down and muttered, "Don't' even try it."

Deimos vengefully replied "Yes. I. Will."

Right when Deimos said the last word, he spun around faster than a fly and slashed Butler's ankles until his bones showed with his razor sharp claws. Butler tried to hold his pain back but at the sight of his bones gleaming whiter than the sun, he fell down like a rag doll.

Deimos took this chance and tried to make a dash at Artemis and Holly at the entrance, but Butler grabbed his leg and pulled him back down. Deimos rapidly kicked Butler with enough strength to kill a troll, but Butler's Kevlar toughened chest protected him from the hits. Butler threw a punch at his opposition's face, but the latter was fast enough to dodge it. As the two on the floor continued to struggle, Holly shot Deimos repeatedly with her Neutrino until he stopped moving.

Both Artemis and Holly realized that Butler was still in the danger zone, as he was right next to Deimos. "Butler, are you all right?" Artemis asked when he ran up to Butler. Holly was not even bothering for any speech and just tried to find his points of injury before moving him.

"Artemis, he's not injured at all near his chest area, but his ankles are severely lacerated. We have to get him to the car."

Right after she said that, they started to drag Butler out of the small house and back to the car with some level of difficulty. After putting him in the back seat, Holly was surprised to see Artemis enter the driver's seat.

"Artemis, you can drive?"

His response was relatively short, but appropriate with the given situation.

"No, but the car can."

Losing no time, Artemis let Holly into the back seat with the now unconscious Butler, and said to the car "Evasion mode, destination Fowl Manor. "

The car started to move on its own and began to drive away from the small house they were in only minutes ago. Suddenly, they felt a huge slamming sound coming from the trunk of the car. When Artemis looked out of the window, Deimos was screeching like a bat and digging his feet into the ground to try to stop the car. "Stop the car NOW!"

Artemis suddenly had an idea.


	5. Chapter 5

_For those of you who have been waiting for chapter 5, thank you! :) And for those of you who are new, thank you! It always warms my heart to know that people like my fanfic. The next chapter will be published on December 18th 2009 (probably before 10PM Japan time) and chapter 7 may be published on the 21st or the 22nd, because I have semester exams for my school. Also, a lot of people have been asking me about the LEP Retrieval stuff by PM. Just to clarify, one reason Holly didn't is because this was only supposed to be between Trouble and her, as well as the fact that sending in a Retreival team would have been suicide, as Deimos would have killed (if not eaten) them all. Now on to Chapter 5!_

_Chapter 5_

"If you want to stop us, you will have to catch us first!" He yelled.

He was hoping on his life that the plan would work properly, as that's what was at stake.

"Artemis, what are you doing?! You'll get us killed!" Holly shouted out. Even though at academy she learned that enraging an opponent reduces their sense of judgment, making them do self-destructive and irrational actions, what Artemis was doing was either out of precision planning or plain madness. She was wishing that it was with the former. With a light heave, Deimos began to lift the car up so high that the front window was facing the sky.

"Nowhere to go, Mud Boy! You're dead!"

Artemis quickly pulled his head into the car to not get his head chopped off, and reached for the back seat.

"What are you doing?"

"Holly, get me Butler's gun."

Right when Holly handed Artemis the considerably large pistol, Artemis lowered the window and after taking careful aim, shot Deimos's arms.

* * *

Deimos POV

'I've got em', Ive got em'!' that was all I thought after I lifted their tiny car up. 'Ohhhh that Mud Boy will pay. Regenerating is fast, but it HURTS!'

"Nowhere to go, Mud Boy! You're dead!"

That was all I could say after that human made me lose my grip and I could only witness the car falling on me. 'Oh shi-'

* * *

Normal POV

The car landed squarely on Deimos, and right when the car landed on its wheels again, it instantaneously drove away. The recoil of the gun incredibly hurt Artemis' hand, but that was the least of his worries. After getting on the highway, Holly manages to get the conversation to start rolling.

"We need to get Butler back to the house! He's bleeding pretty bad."

Holly removed Butler's shoes and socks to be able to inspect the wound better. The cut that he got from Deimos was beginning to turn a green cheese coloration, and it wasn't stopping to bleed.

"Can your magic heal it?" Artemis turned around as he put Butler's pistol into the beverage hole.

"This is out of my ability, Artemis. Whatever the guy slashed Butler with; it was laced with some pretty nasty stuff. We'll need professional medical warlocks to get rid of this. Maybe Foaly can help us identify this."

She quickly began to call Foaly, and faster than a horse Foaly was at their side, metaphorically.

"What do you need me to…wow, that a pretty nasty looking cut there, Butler. Holly, can point the camera to the wound. The sensors will do the rest." Several seconds after Holly pointed the camera to the wound, Foaly's voice broke the silence again.

"Interesting. Doesn't match any type of wound characteristics that has been recorded, but it does seem to be caused by a biological/magical poison. It also seems to have an anti-clotting effect, but if you put anti-septic on it then it should be fine. I would need a good sample to analyze and to find a cure though." Interestingly, Foaly cut off without warning.

"Why were you there Artemis?" Artemis could only respond with a brief response, faster than a gremlin's tongue.

"It just caught my attention." After he said this though, Artemis slumped down into his seat with a slight feeling of despair, but mostly guilt.

"This was my fault. Only if I realized the possible dangers of it before…" Holly put a reassuring hand on Artemis's shoulder and said "It's okay. It was only your instinct to do it."

After the car automatically parked itself in the driveway, Holly and Artemis dragged Butler into the house. Fortunately for them, Artemis's parents weren't there because they were watching Myles and Beckett's school play. After they put Butler in a good position on a couch, Holly notified of the situation to Foaly.

"…and Foaly we need a lot of medical warlocks up here. Butler's wound is getting even worse." By now, his wound's lips were turning charcoal black and his bones were turning blue. Every single time that Holly moved him, his wounds split, and his blood oozed out like lave coming out of rock cracks.

"Oh, and I know who killed the fairy."

"Who is it?!" Foaly could only respond with a slightly desperate sounding yelp.

"He's about 6 feet tall, has long black hair with white skin…"

"And his sclera (white part of the eye), pupil, iris, conjunctiva, and all areas around it are black. I saw it all on the camera. Running persons check on these characteristics now, Holly." Despite the large amount of key tapping there was in the back, Holly could not help but notice that Artemis was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is that Mud Boy?"

* * *

LEP HQ, Foaly's lab

Foaly just finished his digital man-hunt, and right when he was about to be finished, Commander Trouble Kelp stepped into the lab. Right when he tapped Foaly on the shoulder though, Foaly gave a little yelping sound, extremely odd for any centaur. Trouble Kelp jumped back in surprise, and calmly re-approached Foaly.

"What are you doing?" was Trouble's only word to Foaly. Frankly speaking, he just wanted to go up there himself and take care of whatever caused the death, but his new rank as Commander prevented him. The slightly shaky centaur gave a quick response.

"Just assisting Holly with some things, Trouble. Nothing more."

Curiosity overtook Trouble, and he stepped to the keyboard and screen as he tried to look at what Foaly was doing. After doing this though, he realized that the keyboard was too high for him to use, much less see. "Do you mind?"

Foaly kicks a box over to where Trouble is, and Trouble clambers onto it, partly out of embarrassment. Right when he saw the screen though, he just stared at it for a while. When he looking at the white skinned figure in the video-capture, Holly's voice broke through.

"Foaly? Are you there?" When Foaly was about to respond though, Trouble silenced him and responded gruffly instead.

"Yes, he is here, Captain. You'd better have a good explanation of what in the name of a smart goblin are you doing." Holly's voice responded with a bit of speed.

"Oh, Commander. I went to investigate the scene of the death. It was going well until…" Her pause only could let Trouble know that something bad happened.

"What happened. Why didn't you call for Retrieval? You'd better tell me right now, or I'll come up there myself!"

"Oh."

She remembered that she should have contacted Retrieval of possible 3rd contact before going in. She had to make an excuse fast.

"Sir, you do remember Butler, correct?" Trouble shuddered at even briefly think of that giant of a Mud Man. Trying to fight him head-on was even worse. He would never fight against that one ever in his long life.

"Yes."

"Well our culprit took down Butler. In one shot."

Foaly decided to cut in and finish his analyzing.

"I think I have a match, but he definitely didn't live in Haven." Foaly pulled up the complete profile. "Trakh, Deimos. Height is about 6 feet and has pitch black eyes and pale white skin. That's weird. He is supposedly older than Haven itself. He was mentioned in some of the really old texts stored in the global Haven system historical archives."

"Anything useful? Like how to beat him?"

"No, nothing like that. But he was one of the First Eight."

Holly responded quickly with a voice of confusion.

"What's the First Eight?"

"Well, the First Eight was…" At this moment though, he was rudely interrupted by a heaving sound, then a yell of pain from Holly's side of the mike.

* * *

Fowl Manor, Living Room

Butler woke up, but with the surprise of seeing Holly next to him made him sit up from his position. This evoked the wound in his ankles to split even more, thus made him yell and fell unconscious again from the pain. Holly quickly tried to make Butler's ankle stop bleeding, but her attempts were futile as they quickly got worse. Right when she was about to start healing, as a last resort, a hand went on her shoulder.

"Don't. You'll need that magic later." It was the only thing that Artemis said when she turned around.

"Really, guys? Can I ever talk without being interrupted?" Foaly's voice went out of the sides of Holly's helmet, as he was going on speaker mode. "Oh, Artemis is here."

"Artemis Fowl! Stay away from the Captain!" Trouble's voice also broke through, with a significantly louder tone.

Out of reaction, Holly removed her helmet and put it on the floor, just so she won't go deaf from Trouble's yelling as well as to let Artemis hear easily.

Foaly resumes talking, with a slightly annoyed tone. "Trouble, please. Anyways, the guy who attacked you, Deimos Trakh, was one of the First Eight…"

Artemis unintentionally interrupted him, saying "So who are the First Eight?"

"Mud Boy, with all due respect please shut up and let me finish." Artemis was a bit shocked as he didn't realize, but decided to obey Foaly for the moment.

"Finally. Anyways, the First Eight were the representatives of the fairies and humans alike, during the days when humans and fairies lived above-ground. Frond the first fairy king being in the third seat, and our culprit Deimos in the fifth seat. Apparently, all of them wore a bronze pendant with the insignia of a sun, to symbolize their leadership. After the big war between humans and fairies though, the First Eight disbanded, some of them going on their own ways. That's all I found so far."

"Great. Thanks for the info, Foaly." Holly responded.

"No problem. Oh, and the medical warlocks should be there soon. Foaly out."

Right when that little conversation ended, Artemis was thinking with some level of deep thought.

'Why would they attack us? What is the purpose of their action? What are they trying to accomplish? Would IT work against them?'

After thinking these few questions, and the minor confused look on his face, Holly approached him.

"Artemis, you're hiding something. Don't try to lie to me about it, ok? I've known you as a person for a while and believe me, it shows through."

Artemis rose to his full height and decided to tell Holly his secret. Something Butler knows very little about as well. "Holly, I need to show you something. I know we talked about this a long time ago, but I think now is the best time to tell you."

After covering Butler with a blanket he began to walk to his workshop, as if to indirectly notion to Holly to follow him. After a long walk, and going down a flight of stairs, he asked her to sit down and he pushed a button. Something large began to come out of the ground, as the floor split in half. As Holly's eyes tracked the object, they got wider and wider as more of the object was revealed.

"Where did you obtain these?"

* * *

_Thanks for reading! Read, Rate, and Review please!_


	6. Chapter 6

_Because of the overwhelming amount of support reviews, I am continuing this! (yay!) To clarifty some things. I really couldn't include these things in the story, so I'll just say it here. Deimos has a Mancurain accent, Nu' Taruk has a Scottish accent similar to Davy Jones's from POTC, Bealklor has a barely noticable British accent, and Injis has an American accent. Read, Rate, and Review please! (subscriptions are welcome.)_

Chapter 6

2 hours later.

Romania, Old Church Ruins

The place looked mostly intact, but a top corner of the church was gone, and the piano-organ that was there was in nothing but a crushed state. Confession stands looked like no one used them for years, if not centuries. This was a secret church that was made before the Dark Ages, and after wars ravaged the country, it was forgotten.

Deimos arrived at the footsteps of the church entrance, and stepped in after taking a deep breath and adjusting his hat. His body was mostly healed of the wounds from the car, but burn wounds take longer to heal. He walked past the rows of seats next to him, and only bothered to step over a Bible, left tattered on the ground. The arches of ancient design were in a state that threatened to crumble, and the metal chandeliers swung overhead. He approached a column and touched the smooth wood of it, when a voice broke the deathly silence.

"Were you sssuccessssful at getting another one? Or did you kill him too?" The hissing ghastly voice was followed by a person stopping out of the shadows. Accurately speaking, the shadows stepped out to greet him. The shadow melted and reshaped itself until it formed a body of a snake. It spoke to Deimos with a cold authority.

"My massster would not be pleasssed if you didn't bring another one. You haven't for yearssss now."

Deimos replied with his devilish voice.

"I don't take orders from a shade. Lead me to Nu' Taruk."

The snake or more accurately the shade, changed its body yet again to the form of a crow. This time, it responded with a chirpy voice.

"Follow suit then."

The shade led Deimos to a pillar, and stepped on a jutting rock with force disproportionate to its body size. The pillar opened to reveal a simple elevator, the ones they use to carry laundry. Deimos squeezed his body into the shaft, and was lowered to another level. Right when it stopped though, he realized that he was stuck in the shaft. So he just broke the shaft open with brute strength and stepped out.

"We need to get that stupid elevator fixed" he muttered, before moving through the hallway, adorned with paintings of fruits and landscapes of the surrounding land on the metal walls, with a red velvet carpeting for a floor.

When he approached the sliding door at the end, it automatically opened to reveal a massive marble-stone chamber with 8 seats, elevated as high as the eye can see. One of them rapidly lowered itself to allow Deimos to sit on it, and he was lifted where he was eye-level with 2 other people, all of which in similar seats.

"You're late. What took you so long Deimos?"

The question came from a person who was wearing a relatively large dark green cloak, with a rope tied around his waist to support it. He also had a bubbling wooden staff with a large green crystal ball on the upper end. The only thing that would have made him stand out from the crowd was the fact that he was an anthropomorphic giant rat. His fur was black and he was about 5 feet tall.

"Had a bit of trouble, Injis." It was Deimos's only response as he adjusted his sitting position.

"What do you mean by 'trouble'?"

"Doesn't concern you. It's been dealt with."

"And how are we to tell that you have told us the truth this time, Deimos Trakh? It could jeopardize our plans." The newest question came from a figure who was sitting cross-legged in a chair, wore a cloak made out of animal quills, and boots made of bear feet. He also had white hair in contrast to Deimos, and had pale white eyes and grey skin.

"Look, Bealklor, it was just another failure, alright?"

"YOUR FAILURE COULD HAVE EXPOSED OUR PRESENSE TO THE ENEMY YOU FOOL!"

The explosive voice that rang the room belonged to that of an entity that swooped down from above. It smoothly knocked Deimos off of his seat and drove him to the marble floor below. When Deimos was about to crash, the being let go and went into his own seat, while opening a small photo and gazing at it. Deimos wasn't so lucky, as every single bone in his body was broken during the fall and he looked more like a large splat on the ground. He really didn't care of course, as his body can sustain any type of damage and regenerate itself. As all of his bones sucked into the right place and his skin and flesh wove together again, he rose to his previous height on the seat.

"You really didn't have to do that, Nu' Taruk. I won't die, but it hurts a lot."

Nu' Taruk looked like an abomination of a man, with his skull pale bald head that looks like it was stitched together so many times it looks like a doll. In fact, his mouth and nose weren't visible because they are covered by a gas mask. He wore a heavy duty military gear that was all black, and an advanced monocular device replaced his left eye. His left hand was gloved with white bandage strips while his other hand had a black glove on it, and he was about the same height as Deimos.

"None of us can die you stupid fool! You, exposed us to the enemy! You, failed to get another soul! You, let even the realm of men know of our existence!"

His blood red eye stared at Deimos with a killer intent, while his monocular one showed a target lock system activating.

Injis immediately broke the fighting "Okay guys, knock it off, knock it off! Nu, you know that we already have enough souls for the attack, and Deimos, try to not fail all the time."

Bealklor was just watching the conversation unravel.

"Are you willing to let an infidel like him to get away with nothing?!" Nu' Taruk asked Injis in a slightly enraged manner. "We are not as powerful as we were once before. You know that as well as I do."

After watching the 3 argue, Bealklor decided to speak up.

"In this situation, I believe that it is the best of our options to send a scout ahead to see if they know too much."

Injis turned his head, and nodded in instant agreement.

"Man, I agree. We should check before we commence. After all, it would all be worthless if our opposition crashes our party. What do you say D'? Wanna go?"

"Yes, I would…" Deimos's response was cut off by Nu' Taruk's hissing sound of his gas mask going off, and Nu' responded for him.

"I appreciate your willingness Injis, unlike others. But I think one person will be quite efficient for a scouting mission."

"Fine, whatever. I just think 2 people will be better though." When Injis started to ramble, Nu' cut him off.

"Just leave."

"Fine, fine." Injis then spun his staff with expert skill and slammed the bottom of it against the seat. He began to dissipate into green mist and right before he was completely gone, he muttered "Grouch."

After Injis dissapated, Bealklor spoke again.

"If they are oblivious, will it all go to plan?" His bronze pendant was swinging on its chain as he stood up.

With a silent voice, Nu' Taruk muttered. "Yes. It must and it will."

"And if they know?"

Nu' Taruk stood up and addressed the quiet sage. "It does not matter. They are merely pawns in our game now." While saying this, he pocketed the picture he was holding moments before.

* * *

Fowl Manor, Artemis's Workshop

Artemis realized his mistake soon enough to only pull out a small component of his entire project and making itself lower into the floor before Holly saw through most of the thick liquid Nitrogen mist. What he pulled out, was a weapon that looked nothing like any other LEP weapon. It had a width of about two inches, but it was as long as half of Artemis's arm. It seemed to strap itself on with a Velcro strap, and was active as soon as it was pulled off of the rack.

"This, Holly, this is Thought Gun 1. TG-1 for short. Made entirely from scrap weapons from the Bwa' Kell revolution and a bit of stored equipment from the siege not too long ago. You can attach it anywhere on your body." There were some aspects of the weapon that he didn't tell, for example, the fact that the original intention of this was to disable the LEP.

"So, how do you use it?"

Artemis put Holly's arm on the table and just strapped it onto her arm. She felt a slight tingly sensation when the final strap was put on, but she dismissed it as nothing. Artemis walks over to a Fed-Ex box and after putting it on a stool, told Holly in a very straight-forward manner.

"You point it, you think, and it shoots."

"What do you mean by 'think'?"

"Imagine firing your Neutrino."

Holly tried, but her instinct to shoot her Neutrino in danger doesn't really need thought. She just does it. After a bit of concentration, she opened her eyes, and it shot a ion-blue bolt of energy at the box. It seemed to fly lazily at first, but it accelerated and destroyed the box.

"How did you do this? Not even Foaly managed to make a thought-activated weapon."

"Simple. I assumed that the fairy anatomy was similar to that of a human's, so it relies on electrical brain signals sent to the location of the body where my weapon is attached to. It then takes that brain signal and the weapon fires."

When Holly looked at where the TG-1 was attached, she saw small needles too small to feel, but still visible enough to see them sticking into her arm.

"As you might already be able to tell, the TG-1 fires different projectiles than the Neutrino. It relies on the same fuel source as the Softnose laser, and uses plasma as the projectile."

"I can't wait until Foaly hears this. He'll envy you."

"Naturally."

When Holly was about to take another shot though, the sound of glass breaking made them rush upstairs to find a fairy leaning over Butler's still figure. Other fairies seem to appear out of nowhere, as they seem to be armed to the teeth with medical gear. The medical warlocks began taking measurements of Butler's current blood level, infection rate, breathing rate e.t.c. Trouble Kelp also appeared with them and surprisingly, Foaly next to him with a notebook-sized touchpad on his person.

"Nice to have a little reunion here Trouble, but I really don't see the need that I have to be here. I could probably be more effective at my lab."

"Shut it. I want this to be face-to-face. Come on everyone. Move on in."

Similarly to the warlocks but faster, an entire Retrieval squadron appeared. Holly was surprised that Trouble was there, for the fact that this was entirely supposed to be done in secret.

"Commander, why did you bring everybody here? We don't…"

Trouble didn't even bother to talk and opened a piece of paper.

"The Council found out. This just became a bigger crisis than the Artemis Fowl case." And that's a pretty big crisis level.

In the back Foaly was setting up hologram fields to ward away any prying eyes. He was also directing some faires to set a tent up too.

"No doubt that the Council will try to take over this operation. I would suggest keeping them away from this until we can figure things out." Artemis walked up from behind them as his bodyguard Butler was being treated.

"You aren't in charge here Fowl. We know little of our adversaries, no matter whether you like it or not. The only reason you know of this is because you had contact with it." He turned to the nearest Retrieval team member, a sprite by the looks of it. "Gather your team. In five minutes we'll make a full area sweep and for goodness sake, be on shield all of the time. Maintain constant communication."

"Are you commanding them from here?" asked Artemis.

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't going to go with them. Unlike you, I actually do some of the team's work. It's servant leadership, Fowl. Learn it, and use it." Trouble went back into a large tent which was set up by some of the Retrieval only minutes ago.

* * *

Foaly walked (more like clopped) over to where Holly and Artemis were, and could only hug Holly, thankful that she is alright.

"You won't believe how happy I am to see you alive." As he hugged her, she could hear a bit of sobbing from Foaly. "Sorry, I just get teary about these things. Oh, Mud Boy's here."

Artemis was just standing a bit away from them as the short reunion ended. Foaly took a look at Holly again and noticed the tubular object on her arm.

"Hey, what's that?"

"Oh, this. This is the Thought Gun. It fires plasma bolts, and it's fired by thinking for it to shoot." She unwittingly said it in a way to try to get Foaly to feel jealous. Foaly held up Holly's arm and observed the gun for a moment, and them looked at the Mud Boy.

"Just how much of our resources did you use to make this?"

"Not much. Just a Neutrino, some helmet components, and a Soft-nose laser."

"Interesting."

While the two intellectuals were sharing thoughts, Trouble approached Holly once again.

"Holly, if you want to come with us, you can."

"Sorry, but I think I had enough action for a day. I'll just watch things over from here."

"All right then." Trouble headed off to his team, and they simultaneously shielded, disappearing from sight.

* * *

_Read, Rate, Review please! :)_

_You really don't want to miss the next chapter. Or any of them for that matter._


	7. Chapter 7

_I am so sorry about not being able to update quickly enough! Exams were exceptionally hard, so now I am content. Anyways, if you guys are fans of matrix-ish fighting, then you will love this chapter. Thanks for all of you guys whoa re enjoying this story so far, and please read, rate and review. (subscribe too!) Yeah, all that disclaimer crap too. Oh, the latest reviewer said something about the Thought Gun being IT. No, it's not IT, so continue reading to find out what IT really is._

Chapter 7

1 hour later.

Middle of a forest

Injis appeared above a thicket of some bushes and fell into the branches, breaking several when he rolled off.

"Ow. Crap that hurts."

His translucent whiskers wiggled as he smelled the air, and his whip-like tail curled in the mugginess of the forest.

"Nu', really. He had to be the one who orders people around."

He could see a couple of stags with other deer prancing around the forest and some ducks and other birds flying between trees. Injis stared at one duck intently, and threw a stone to kill it. He quickly walked over to eat his little snack, and continued.

As he started to move though the woods, he felt the air get colder as it was nearing nightfall.

"Gotta get outta here."

He used his natural climbing skills as a part rat, and went up a tree. In the distance, he could see a small manor, with some of its lights still on.

"So that's where they want me to go…"

After taking a deep breath he started to hop from one branch to another, slowly making his way to the light. But when he got near to his target, he saw several figures flying in the sky. Slightly blurred, but he could still tell what they were.

'Fairies, no doubt about it.' It was a long time since he last fought one.

After managing to finish a couple hours worth of traveling in minutes, he descended to the ground and walked to where the house was. Surprisingly, the house seemed to not have changed at all, as the occupants are keeping to their regular lifestyles. A large man was patrolling the house and a blonde haired girl was behind the large man. But what intrigued him the most was the boy near the window. Black hair, pale skin, vampire's smile. If he didn't know any better, he would have assumed that the kid was Deimos's long lost son or something.

He couldn't resist saying his thoughts out loud.

"Damn, that kid should get out more! Go to clubs, meet some girls, have fun! Jeez, he's being wasted with that computer." But right when he was about to get closer, a whining sound of a Neutrino ready to fire sounded behind him.

"Commander Kelp, we've got company."

* * *

Parallel to the Above section

Fowl Manor, Outside.

Holly was in the tent for the past hour, and was looking intently at each of the feeds coming from the helmets. Foaly was also looking at them, and constantly refining the cameras to be at optimum performance from the tent. A live satellite view was also showing everything she needed to see.

The Thought Gun was lying on a small table next to her, as the slight tingling was irritating.

When it all seemed quiet though, Trouble's voice rung once from the speaker.

"All units, report current findings."

"Unit one, nothing suspicious sited."

"Unit two, zero, nada, zilch."

"Unit three, nothing."

"Unit four, nothing found. Sorry Commander, but I don't think our guy is here." Right when Trouble was about to give a sigh of defeat, a voice crackled in.

"Commander Kelp, we've got company. Approaching base now."

* * *

Artemis was right next to Butler's unmoving body, as several medical warlocks were surrounding it. They were having several books, as well as medical vials and equipment around them as they inspected Butler.

One of the medical warlocks approached Artemis Fowl gingerly and told him some tragic news.

"Excuse me."

Artemis looked back at the warlock, and responded with a simple answer. "Yes?"

"I have some good news and some bad news for you."

"The good news?"

"The good news is that the bodily damage has halted, and there seems to be no more decaying effect."

Artemis waited for the surely bed news to come along.

"The bad news is that he doesn't have much time. One or two days tops, but otherwise, he will die. Inevitably."

Artemis was beginning to become be desperate.

"Didn't you find a cure?"

"I'm sorry, but the viruses, pathogens, poisons, microorganisms, and the degeneration effects are too much for one cure to solve. I am so sorry." The medical warlock quickly backed away, and went back to his other fellow warlocks.

The truth doomed upon Artemis, and when he realized that no amount of magic will be able to save Butler, he became what he was never able to be. A child. He just started to sob, when he realized that there was no other option. When he saw the figure break through the thick woods however, he realized that there was still a chance. A bleak one yes, but a chance nonetheless.

* * *

Holly was surprised when Artemis burst into the tent and gasping as if he just ran a marathon. He managed to sputter out loud "Retrieval just found someone. They are coming in about a minute."

Holly was confused why Artemis knew this because he never went into the tent at all for the past hour. "Artemis, how…"

"They are right outside the holo-field. But he's not the guy who attacked us."

When Holly left the tent and went to where Artemis guided her, she couldn't believe her eyes. A giant rat was standing and a LEP Retrieval fairy was right behind him, his Neutrino drawn and pointed at the rat's head.

"Aw, come on guys, can't we all just get along?" Injis spoke, in surprisingly fluent English, an American accent at that.

They stepped through the holo-field, and while the officer was going through, he gruffly commanded Injis.

"Shut up, and get on the ground on your knees. Keep your hands where I can see them, and stay like that until the Commander comes."

"Ah, but you never said anything about a tail." Injis unleashed his grey tail at the officer.

It swept him off of his feet, curled around his ankles and threw him against the ground with a painful thump.

Injis turned around and began to wonder what to do now. His cover was already blown, so he might as well try to know as much as he can before he leaves. He politely bowed to the both of them.

"Hey, he had it coming. By the way, name's Injis."

Despite the polite introduction, Holly had her Neutrino locked onto him and ready to blow his head clean off. After all, a giant rat is pretty menacing.

"Do what the officer just said. Get down on the ground." Holly commanded with a voice of even greater authority.

"Really? Do we have to do this again?"

Injis tried to do the same tail-sweeping maneuver, but Holly jumped high enough to avoid it. His tail instantly curled into a spring-like shape and he used it to bounce over Holly's head. She squeezed the trigger of the Neutrino several times, but only two of them hit him; one on the ear, and the other through the stomach. They quickly healed, similar to Deimos's, but a bit slower.

Holly yelled to Foaly who just left the tent "Get Retrieval here as fast as possible!" Foaly entered the tent as fast as he left it, and started the communications.

Outside, Injis slowly flipped through the air and during this time, he used his tail to pull a knife out of his cloak pocket and threw it at Holly with incredible speed. It curved through the air, and it was arcing toward Holly with deathly speed. She realized just in time and rolled backward, the knife missing her by less than an inch.

But Holly realized her mistake, as Injis disappeared through a green cloud and reappeared right behind her. She accidentally rolled right into him and Injis grabbed her neck with his tail. As he lifted her high into the air, he muttered "See, I told you. I always wins the fight."

He was about to snap her neck when an ion-blue bolt of energy struck him in the head, and he fell unconscious. Holly fell a bit, but she was okay. When she looked up, she saw Artemis with the Thought Gun attached to his left shoulder, the barrel of it still smoking with the sudden heat increase. He ran over to help Holly up.

"Are you okay? Did you break anything?"

"No, I'm all right. Maybe a rib but I'll manage."

The blue sparks danced around her chest, and they disappeared at quickly as they appeared. The two of them went over to the now-unconscious Injis and rolled him over. Right when they started to drag him though, a pendant was exposed. The pendent was a bronze sun with a face on it.

"Holly, do you recognize that?" Holly bent down cautiously and pulled the pendant closer to her for inspection. A silence ensued until the sound of Retrieval came.

"Well, what are you waiting for Captain! Tie him up. I want answers. And I will get them."


	8. Chapter 8

_Thank you for staying with me this far on this project. I highly appreciate everybody's support about this. But in order for me to be able to continue, I need more reviews. Also, I added some new fairy races in this story, the rat-men(Injis), titans(Bealklor), and the wraiths(Deimos). __I started a new quote-thing above the chapter. Most of them are made by me. thanks. I am currently working on a BioShock and Artemis Fowl crossover, so stay with me._

_Read and Review please._

"Punishment and Torture are the same. The only difference is that one has reason, and the other has madness." -Anonymous

Chapter 8

* * *

The room was dark and stereotypically, there was a swinging lamp attached to the ceiling. Injis tried to move this tail, but he realized that it was wrapped in some type of hard material. He was tied to a industrial steel chair, and his hands were bound in chicken wire. When he tried to lift the chair he was in, Artemis opened the door to the room and calmly walked down the wooden stairs. Injis looked in surprise at the boy, not even a fully grown man, yet walking with an authority of a person with great importance.

"I know that this may seem very unfortunate for you, but it is an appropriate measure that we must take." Artemis motioned to a pitcher of water in the room and a glass cup. "Water? Irish freshwater, the best of its kind."

"No."

"Pity." Artemis poured himself a cup of it, and set it on the table.

"What do you want from me?" Injis inquired, with a small sense of sarcasm.

"I want to make a proposition."

"And what do you think I want from you? You don't even know who I am."

"On the contrary, I am well aware of who you are." Artemis looked at a small sheet of paper he pulled out of his breast pocket.

"Injis Sneill, One of the Eight lords of the ancient world, known as Injis the Right, Injis the Kind, and Injis the everyman. You were the representative for the underground realm of rat-men. Well known as a master of infiltration close quarter combat. And I know what you want."

With a slightly quieter voice, Artemis added. "What you want is your freedom."

Injis started to laugh his head off. After his little laugh spasm ended, he spoke. "You, give me my freedom? Sorry kiddo, but I can go anywhere in the world in a blink of an eye." When Injis tried to do that however, he started to scream in pain.

"What? What's going on?"

Artemis pulled out a stool from a dark corner of the room, and sat down in it.

"The weakness about magic is that there is always an element of science involved. For example, healing is simply the manipulation of rapid cellular regeneration. Mesmering maybe an advanced form of hypnotism." Artemis picked up the cup of water from earlier before.

"You, apparently have a unique ability. You can seemingly teleport. But I know how it truly functions. You can manipulate the vibration rate of each of your individual molecules. Or, accelerate it to such a rate that you can travel at the speed to light. So you can effectively go anywhere you want, regardless of obstacles."

"So kid, if you know all of this, then you obviously know that I can leave whenever I want."

Artemis brought out a vial of some metal filings. He pulled the cork off, and poured it into the cup of water. The metal filings began to sink to the bottom, until it arced in middle and stuck to the side of the cup.

"Your ability to teleport can be suppressed by usage of one of the four nuclear powers; Nuclear Major, Nuclear Minor, Electro-magnetism, and Gravity. I don't have the first two at my disposal, and the last is too weak to begin with." The metal filings in the cup rose over the edge and slammed into a wall.

"I have an electromagnetic field generated around this room. Only at a level to suppress you of course. But if I increase it any further, then you will lose your atomic stability, and you will blow up. Literally."

Injis realized that this boy was far smarter than how he looked, and decide to follow along.

"Fine. What do you want?"

"In exchange for your freedom, I want the antidote to my bodyguard's ailment."

Injis nodded. "It's a deal. Can you loosen my ropes a bit? That's all I need."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "And the antidote?"

"It's in my right pocket."

Artemis reached in and pulled out a vial with neon purple liquid in it.

"That will counteract Deimos's poison. Had it with me in case he got pissed off and slashed me."

Artemis observed the vial in the bleak level of light, and he looked at the ratty face of Injis.

"The generator will be deactivated in 10 minutes. And Injis, this transaction never happened."

Artemis walked up the stairs again and closed the door behind him.

* * *

Five Minutes later

Right when the door closed, he tried to struggle out of his bonds but a quick whack to his head made him stop.

"All right, rat-man. Why are you here?"

Injis turned his head as far as he could, and saw Trouble Kelp walking down the steps. Knowing that he will escape anyways, he pulled his best fake pleas.

"Hey, I've got my rights! Let me out!"

"Actually, you assaulted an LEP Retrieval unit officer, and you also attempted to kill a LEP Recon captain. Also known, as me." Holly stood and walked over to Injis. "You're on a very far road to getting out. But you can let yourself out by answering some questions."

"Fine. What are they?"

"First thing. Who and what are you?"

"As I recall saying before, my name is Injis Sneill."

"Profession?"

"I am one of the First Eight."

"Who are the others?"

"Can't tell you that."

Trouble grabbed a stake the size of his hand and a large hammer.

"Answer the damn question."

"No."

"Don't make me do…" Before he could finish, Holly grabbed the stake and hammer out of his hand. With lighting fast speed, she stabbed it through Injis's feet. Injis stifled a cry of pain by biting on his lower lip.

"Hurts, doesn't it." Injis could only quickly nod. "Well my friend's bodyguard was attacked and his ankle is slowly rotting. You should think that what you got was a blessing compared to his."

She put her head right next to Injis's, and began to whisper into his ear. "If you don't answer, the next one goes through you head."

"OKAY! Just tell me what you need to know."

"Who are the others?"

"Deimos Trakh, Bealklor Evergreen, Nu' Taruk Eshan've, and me."

"Why are you here?"

"I was sent to spy on you people, to see if you know too much about us. Apparently, now I failed at that."

Holly walked over to Trouble. She started talking to him in a voice so silent that only he could hear it.

"Well, what do you think?"

"With his given conditions right now, I don't think he's lying."

While they were talking to each other, Injis took this as an opportunity to pull the stake out of his foot, allowing his foot to heal to its original state. Holly walked over to him and had another stake.

"I've got some more questions for you."

"Yeah, what."

"If you truly are one of the First Eight, then why are you still alive? An average fairy's lifespan isn't that long."

Injis gave a slight shudder before speaking. "It's because of Frond. When the war between men and fairy happened, the First Eight disbanded."

When Injis started talking, the truth of the situation became clearer as he went along.

"Everyone who is or used to be in the First Eight, were all representatives of all magical species that used to exist, and some humans. I am the last of my species, as well as Bealklor and Deimos. All of ours were killed by humans, the rat-men, the titans, the wraiths. The only reason that the fairy people still exist today is because men let them be. You see, the First Eight was the most important thing in that ancient age."

"What do you mean 'most important'?"

"The rule between all of the species, regardless of rank or location, was that every single time a meeting between the First Eight occurs, all of them must attend. If any representative doesn't attend, it would have been considered as a declaration of war against the people who are attending."

"Stop waffling and answer the damn question."

"Shut up, I'm getting to it. Anyway, the only person who didn't appear at one of them was Nu' Taruk. He was the representative for the realm of men. So following the code, men were declared as enemies of all of those who weren't. But we were ignorant of the fact that humans had had upper advantage of population. We were easily overpowered, and as I said before, my species and many others were destroyed and exterminated."

"So why are you…immortal?"

"After the war and Frond's disappearance, the curse was activated. Frond himself was the one who created it, and it activated when he wanted it to. Every member of the First Eight was to live forever, as some form of punishment for their sins. This discluded Frond of course, because he made it. That bastard. The only way to break the curse is to get the blood of every First Eight, but by the time we realized that, Frond was dead. He had no ancestors that we knew of, so we were stuck in this endless hell of cursed immortality."

Holly could only respond solemnly. "Wow. I actually feel really bad for you."

"So, are you going to let me go?"

"Sorry, but no."

"Too bad, how sad." Right after Injis said this, he curled his tail so fast that the casing around it broke off. He tried to remove Trouble's head from his shoulders by throwing a sharp piece at him, but Trouble dodged it.

"Oh, and think of how in the world did I escape without outside help." His tail ripped off his bindings, and he disappeared in a green cloud of mist. The only material objects he left behind were his knife and a letter.

* * *

Romania, HQ of the First Eight

Injis appeared at his seat once again, and his seat lowered. He was brought down to the floor, and he quickly walked across the room to a door, and entered another room, except about a hundred times larger than the seat room. The inside of the room was virtually buried deep in weapons of incomprehensible size, and bizarre appearances. Even old-age weapons such as some swords were there. He quickly spotted Deimos walking around, and Injis ran towards him.

"I'm back guys!"

Nu' Taruk withdrew his head from a section for broadswords, and approached him.

"Well. What did you find out."

"One, that they have super bad-ass weapons. Two, that they know were coming along, and three, they caught me."

Nu' Taruk rushed up to Injis with alarming speed, and grabbed his shoulder. As Injis was yelping in pain, Nu' Taruk pushed his gas mask face near Injis's ratty one.

"Deimos was enough, to fail at retrieving a soul. But you, you gave information to the enemy. Just how much did you tell them!"

Injis replied with a slightly strained voice, partly out of pain. "My name, who we are, who are the rest of us, some other stuff OW, OW, OW! At least they don't know that out little 'rise against the Mud Men' ploy is fake."

Nu' Taruk stared at Injis with his right eye. "Do you still have the letter?"

"Yeah, I think I have it… Hold on…"

Injis was scrimmaging throughout his pockets when he realized that he left it at the Fowl Manor. "Oh crap."

Nu' Taruk muttered, "You are lucky that we cannot die. If we could, I would have killed you a long time ago."

After releasing him, he grabbed a broadsword off of a rack and strapped it to his back. The other things he took were a broadsword, twin modified Desert Eagles, spike grenades, and a Spas-12 shotgun.

Bealklor approached Injis who was down on the ground, and helped him back up. Bealklor whispered to Injis so that only he could hear it. "I believe that Nu' Taruk is losing his proper level of judgment. He is beginning to have decreasing rational actions. He may become a minor liability to us."

Near one of the racks, Nu' Taruk was walking toward a pillar, and right before it, he stopped and pulled out the picture of a fairy, an elf to be precise. Bealklor approached him, with his quill cloak dragging behind him.

"What are you doing?"

Nu' Taruk faced him, and responded. "Assemble the army. Head to Australia. Set a time-stop field when they get there. Have my shade accompany you."

At this notice, Nu' Taruk's shade appeared and began to open a gateway of pure steel.

"And you? Will you be coming with us?"

"I have some business to attend to." And Nu' Taruk stepped into the pillar, seemingly melting into it.

* * *

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	9. Chapter 9

_Okay, another chapter just in time for christmas. Planning a different AF fanfic, maybe by New Years. Anyways, a little bit of Nu'Taruk*V is goin' on, for those that can't tell. Anyways, Merry Christmas, and have a good New Year. Read and Review!_

Chapter 9

Lower Elements, LEP HQ

Vinyaya got the notice from her recent fellow Commander Trouble Kelp, who was apparently above ground in action.

"Whatever they're planning, it's big."

"What was in that envelope that you found?"

"A bunch of cloves, some weeds, and a letter with some weird symbols and letters on it. Nothing important. Look, until we really find out what these people are planning, we shouldn't make any stupid moves."

"Did you just suggest that I am stupid?"

From her small earpiece, she could distinctly hear Trouble's voice having a slight tone of nervousness.

"Umm, no. Oh gotta go, bye!"

As Vinyaya shook her head in disbelief, she stood up and began pacing around the inside space of her office(?). She looked up at her graduation diplomas from different schools, educations, her various awards, and many other things she received through her years. As she ran her hand along the front edge of her desk, she could remember the years that passed by. It all seemed like yesterday.

She turned her attention to a picture on the wall. It was a group picture of all of the Commanders at a party, taken a decade ago. An imaginary tear rolled down the side of her head when she saw the late Commander Root, smoking his particular fungus cigar. She quickly looked away from that picture and as her tears ran freely, she pulled out a small picture from a drawer and looked at the Mud Man in the image. Without self-consciousness she could only whisper to herself, "Why. Why did you do it."

"Is that to me, Commander? Or to yourself?"

She turned around and saw Nu' Taruk walking out of a wall. He barely fit into the large room, as his head was virtually scraping the ceiling. He didn't even need to take more than five steps to go across the room.

"Why were you not there. You asked me to meet you at the hills in the forest, before the gathering. You weren't there." His face shoved his face into hers. "Why. What is your reason!"

"I was testing you."

"Testing?"

"I was seeing whether you would stick to your duty, more than your personal desires. I thought you were a good man. Apparently I was wrong."

Right after she said this, in response Nu' Taruk pulled his head back and began to undo the bandage on his arm and hand. After he pulled it all off, Vinyaya was shocked at what she saw. His hand maintained a normal shape, but pieces of metal and wood stuck out at random places. An alchemistic circle was burned into the back of his hand, and it would seem to be inconceivable of how it still works. Vinyaya had no doubt that the other hand was no different.

"There was no need for that type of foolishness."

His heavy boots smashed down on the floor and left imprints in it with a fit of rage. "I gave my life, my heart, my soul for you. Yet that was how you repaid me? With betrayal and to kill me? Your father targeted me first, and this is what happened!"

Nu' Taruk's gas mask fell off, and his true face was revealed. His lips and cheeks were completely burned off by some means of magical fire, preventing it from re-healing. His teeth were completely exposed and they turned into crystals with time.

"I became unable to love, unable to learn, unable to live. Your father bound me with the curse of eternal death. And the only way to break it…" Nu' Taruk gently held Vinyaya's hand in his, and continued. "The only way to break it is to get a drop of your blood on your father's pendant, identical to ours."

Vinyaya forcefully pulled her hand away, scornfully saying, "What was between us is long gone. And my loyalties belonged to people more important than you. And they still do."

"So be it." Nu' Taruk turned around and right when he was about to melt into the wall once more, he looked back.

"We should continue this conversation some other time. Say, sunrise? Tomorrow at Australia." He walked into the wall, never to appear in the Lower Elements again.

Right when he disappeared, Vinyaya established contact with every Commander, and left the same message to the Council.

"Assemble all forces. Attack is imminent. Location, Australia. Time, source was not specific, but it is somewhere around sunrise." She cut her message off there, because what she saw just left her shocked. Her security sprite was frozen solid, his screaming visage was etched into ice as he felt his body being frozen both inside and out. When she looked down, one of the unfortunate sprite's wings were broken off, and a childish carving of a heart with a symbol saying "N+V" written on it.

"You sick freak." Was the only thing that Vinyaya could mutter before the body shattered to a million shards with the humidity, revealing the sprite's raw heart that was the only part spared from freezing, thumping its last beats.

* * *

Fowl Manor, Living Room

"How did he escape? It's close to impossible! I mean, you built the magnetic field."

Holly was pacing around, as one of their last leads was gone.

"Perhaps he had some type of undiscovered ability. Telekinesis perhaps?" Artemis was literally making up every single excuse that he could think of on the spot. Even though he knew he was risking his trust even more with every lie he says, he knew that what he did was to save Butler.

"Well, at least Butler's getting better. His ankle has fully healed during the course of the night. Those medical warlocks did a good job."

That was half true.

"Just got a message from Vinyaya. Assemble all forces. Attack is imminent, Australia, Sunrise. A whole bunch of random stuff." Trouble approached Holly, and continued.

"From my experience, this guy was the calm before the ultimate storm. There's going to be a war of unparalleled proportions, and we're going to be in the middle of all of it."

Trouble shot a look at Artemis, and muttered "You too, Mud Boy."

Foaly clopped across the terracotta tiles toward the group of three, and gave a small report.

"Holly was a bit suspicious about how this Injis fellow escaped, so I ran some tests. On the main switch, it says that the last person who touched it was…Mud Boy?" Foaly was slightly confused about the results and ran the checks again. After he really confirmed that Artemis was the last one who touched the machine, Holly spoke in a quiet tone of disbelief.

"Why?"

"I had my suspicions about the rat-man. So I asked for an exchange."

"For what." Trouble's voice was breaking stone when he spoke.

"The cure to Butler's wound, for his release."

"Mud Boy, do you have any idea what you've done!" Suddenly the most unexpected action came from Holly, to Artemis. She slapped him so hard that his head would have spun for years.

"Artemis! Did you learn anything from last time?! You've lied to me. Again! And now millions of fairies lives are at stake because of what you did!"

"I did it to save Butler."

Holly snorted. "And again with this 'I did it to save someone who was hurt because of my stupid choices' stuff! The world doesn't revolve only around you, you know!"

Artemis was actually beginning to raise his voice. "You would have done the same for your mother if you had the chance too!" With a deathly venomous voice, Holly replied.

"Never, ever, compare my mother to your cause." As the two of them argued, Foaly and Trouble were a bit scared, more about Holly's angry spirit.

Anger and persistence overtook Artemis. "I valued Butler as much as you would have valued your mother!"

Suddenly, Holly went out of control and punched Artemis in the face, knocking him out cold.

Holly could only mutter in partly astonishment, partly shock. "Oh no. "

Holly realized her mistake, and she bent down to see if Artemis was okay. Only slightly knocked out, no serious damage. Foaly instantly clopped over, and before he could administer any kind of diagnosis, Holly stopped him.

"No. He needs to learn his lesson."

Foaly instantly understood, leaving Trouble slightly confused, but he rose to his responsibility and instantly took command.

"Get everyone out of here. We're done." A Retrieval officer, the same one that Injis beat down, walked over to Trouble.

"Back to headquarters, sir?"

"Yep, but only to meet up with others. After that, we're heading to Australia." The officer let out a slight groan, but he followed suit.

"Is Mud Boy coming with us?"

Holly just quietly answered "No."

After Foaly, Trouble, and the officer left, Holly took her time to drag Artemis off of the cold floor and onto a couch. She turned and left the house, to activate her wings and leave.

She never looked back.

* * *

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	10. Chapter 10: Sunrise

_Thanks for sticking with me so far guys! I've enjoyed writing this far and all of those reviews are great! The Rise will start soon, and trust me Arty will have a part in it. Oh, just as a notice, please turn PMing on, because if it is off, I can't respond to you guys. Thanks. Read and Review! -LinkinYM_

* * *

_"War is pleasureable to those who have seen its merits. War is terrifying to those who have seen its horrors."_

_"Greed leads to Betrayal. Betrayal leads to Hate. Hate leads to Violence. Violence leads to Death."_

* * *

Chapter 10

4 hours before the Sunrise of the Ancients.

Romania, HQ of the First Eight

When Nu' Taruk came out of the wall again, Bealklor approached him.

Bealklor asked with his usual pale expression. "How did your little encounter with the truth go?"

"Why are you not with everyone else?" snapped back Nu' Taruk

"I have my decisions."

"And so do I." Nu' Taruk walked over to the empty room, where the tall seats made a ring in the middle.

"We have no knowledge whether we will be able to return alive."

"Best make most out of what we will do in less than a few hours."

Nu' Taruk looked at a crystal ball and using his monocular eye, projected a laser image into the ball. It showed a live feed image of LEP fairies getting ready, and it also showed his forces marching to Australia. The imaging briefly buzzed to that of Vinyaya getting ready, then quickly went back to the image of his army.

"You still care for her, do you not?"

Nu' Taruk quickly used Vinyaya's words for his response.

"What was between us is long gone. She is nothing but another enemy." Nu' Taruk stopped the projection. "The warning will start in precisely 4 hours. Make sure that all of our forces are assembled. Now leave."

"How will you get there? All of our jet-bikes are gone."

"I have my methods."

Bealklor transformed into a giant grey wolf, the size of three bears. He growled "I also have mine."

Nu' Taruk nodded and let Bealklor exit the massive church, to go to Australia. After Bealklor left though, Nu' Taruk went to the throne room, and punched Frond's seat so hard that the seat broke into millions of pieces of marble stone. "Damn you Frond. Damn you. Damn you to hell and even further."

Nu' Taruk pulled out Vinyaya's picture and began to whisper to himself. "I will get your blood." After this he crushed the picture and set it on fire. "I will drain every last drop from your body."

* * *

LEP HQ

"Well, I guess we should get geared up for anything basically. I mean, the possibilities are endless."

A fairy could be heard talking with his friend in the middle of a hallway as Holly was heading through them. Her target location was Vinyaya's office, to say her last goodbyes before she leaves to support the forces who will encounter The First Eight's. When she arrived though, she was surprised to see Vinyaya also putting her gear on.

"Wait. Are you going too?"

"Holly, you must understand. This is concerning all of the LEP, not just Recon. And I have some of my personal reasons behind it too."

"What is it?"

"I fell in love. With who I thought was a good man. But I was wrong about my decision."

"Who was it?"

Vinyaya responded with a wink. "That, is my personal reason."

"Okay. When are we leaving?"

"I think it will change for every individual unit. We'll try to avoid too much conflict, so we'll send some negotiators. I just hope that nobody will get killed."

Vinyaya walked over to a shelf, and pulled out her own Neutrino. For some strange reason, it was a 2000 model, but you have to make do with whatever you have. Right when Vinyaya put all of her gear on, she spoke with a voice of slight realization.

"Oh, can you get some incinerator packs from Foaly? I have a feeling that we'll need those."

"Okay, sure." Holly left and had a feeling that there was some kind of greater meaning behind all of this.

After Vinyaya watched Holly leave her office, she pulled out a picture of an unmasked and unscarred Nu' Taruk, and shot it.

* * *

2 hours before the Sunrise of the Ancients

His eyelids felt like as if they had weights attached to them. The last thing that he remembered was Holly's small fist making exceptionally large impulse on his facial section. Artemis realized that he was on the couch and by looking at the distinct loss of dust on the floor, he deduced that after Holly punched him, she dragged him onto the couch.

The darkness outside with a faintly glowing light showed that sunrise wasn't too far away. Even in the darkness, Artemis could see that everyone was gone. Retrieval, the medical warlocks, even Holly. They were all gone.

"Lollipops. I mean, where is Butler?"

Artemis noticed that Butler was on the couch opposite to him, no doubt carried there after Holly and everyone else left. He was unconscious, but otherwise okay in appearance. With one less object to worry about, Artemis recalled what Trouble told all of them. Even though the majority of it was directed at Holly, he could still recall his exact words.

_Assemble all forces. Attack is imminent, Australia, Sunrise._ Artemis glanced at Butler's unmoving body. Then his attention diverted to the phone on a, well, phone stand. The new message button was blinking red. When Artemis pressed the button, his mother's voice was ringing out.

"Hey Arty, listen, your father and I are going to be late tonight. Don't worry, Myles and Beckett are going to be with us. So make sure you and Butler have fun, okay? Bye."

When the message ended, it announced that it was made an hour before Artemis woke up. As this message ended, he realized that if he didn't act fast, a war will happen. Artemis quickly began to walk to his workshop, and it slowly escalated to running. If he didn't act fast, people and fairies will die. Someone who he cared about. Holly, Butler, his parents, his siblings. His sweat was spilling out of him like a wet sponge and by the time he stepped into his workshop, he was nearly out of breath. He smashed his fist onto the button, and his large pet project pulled itself out of the floor. Not even the nitrogen mist slowly covering the room could calm his nerve.

Holly was right. Too many people sacrificed what was important to them for his cause. It was time that he returned the favor. As he activated project IT and donned it, he didn't even bother to walk back up the staircase. He activated the jump jets and shot through the wall.

* * *

1 hour before the Sunrise of the Ancients.

Australia, Central desert

Holly could feel the dry Australian air rushing past her pointy ears and her hair. They really didn't have many fairies, only about a thousand. All shapes and sizes were there, dwarves, elves, demons, sprites. Unwittingly, Mulch managed to hitch a ride there.

"Oh c'mon, I couldn't resist coming along! I mean, if a lot of LEP are going aboveground, it has to be something valuable, right?"

"Or did you consider the fact that it may be something dangerous, that something a greedy dwarf shouldn't be meddling with?" Vinyaya casually walked behind Mulch, and whacked him on the head with her buzz baton.

"Ow. You didn't need to do that."

"Actually, you are now stuck in a potential war. Chances are, you will die."

Mulch could only gulp a ball of saliva, and took this as an opportune moment to pull a beetle out of his beard and eat it with surprising speed, partly out of fear for his own life. Vinyaya was getting negotiators ready in case that the other army wants to negotiate. Holly could only caution all of their forces to remain extremely vigilant and wary. Trouble Kelp was constantly looking at live satellite feeds, to be able to see anything suspicious, in a tent that was set by the other fairies.

A demon, one of the ones that was rescued off of Hybras, asked Trouble in a gruff voice. "Where is what you are looking for?"

Trouble also gave a quick response. "Our adversaries."

Mulch suddenly turned his head, and placed his jaw against the ground, his individual beard hairs snaking into the dry surface. He felt a slight shaking, easily dismissible by even dwarves, but not for Mulch Diggums.

"Something's coming here. Fast. And it's big too."

Holly was quick to react by responding. "Can you tell where it is?"

Trouble's head popped out of the tent that he was working in. "I can't find anything on the satellite. Are you sure about that?"

"Who says it's coming on the ground? Ever thought that it is coming from underground, 'Grub'?"

"I'm not my idiot brother, 'convict'."

Right after he finished his sentence, the ground began shaking so rapidly that even some of the dead trees around them began falling over. Holly climbed up a tree that seemed sturdy enough, and saw a frightening sight.

Bodies and spirits seem to be walking out of the ground, and slowly approaching them. All of them seemed to be in different stages of death, and they all varied in species. They were mostly fairies, but there were humans in there as well. Led by a giant wolf(aka Bealklor), Injis, Deimos, and Nu' Taruk, they all continued straight toward where the LEP were making their stand. When they were about a hundred meters away from them, Nu' Taruk stepped forward.

"I demand for the descendent of Frond to step forward." Both his monocular and normal eye glared at Vinyaya who quickly looked away, in a cocktail of shame, hate, and fear.

Vinyaya quickly motioned for the negotiators to go, apparently they were two pixies. When they arrived in front of Deimos though, he pulled them both up by their heads and ripped them in half. Nu' Taruk continued as if nothing happened.

"If you fail to comply…"

Bealklor morphed from a giant wolf back into his needle cloaked form, and finished Nu' Taruk's sentence for him. "Then death will be your optimal decision, if not the least of your concern."

When Trouble was about to say the opposite, due to the growing army in front of them, Vinyaya yelled out one simple word. "No."

Injis stepped forward and couldn't resist to yell back to the gathered LEP. "Are you people mental?! We have one big army, and we can stomp yo' lil' asses if we wanted to! So I wanna say that sayin' no is pretty stupid! In fact…"

Before he could finish his sentence with a few more insults though, Holly headshot him with her Neutrino. A hole instantly developed through his head, and he resumed. "I think I'll shut up now."

Nu' Taruk didn't even wait for second chances. "Get the cannons. Crush all of them."

A row of about 10 trolls armed with 16th century cannons stepped forward. It was clearly visible that all of the LEP's forces took one step back. If that wasn't bad enough, Holly could see a figure flying with an arc through the sky, no doubt reinforcement. Injis also noticed this, and quietly commented to Deimos.

"Nice, we've got air support."

"What air support?"

The figure fell rapidly toward the Earth and when it landed, it made a crater that stretched from one army to the other.

* * *

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	11. Chapter 11: Glass

_I know it might be a short one, but keep with me, m'kay? Not many chapters left, might be finished in a week or so. So enjoy! Read and Review. -LinkinYM_

_"All things in life are never permament."_

Chapter 11

* * *

As the dust cleared, even some of the trolls hesitated to move onward.

The figure was clad in an enormous futuristic armor and from appearance it looked easily over seven feet in height. Its face wasn't visible because of a massive helmet covering it, complete with eye lenses and gas mask.

Nu' Taruk didn't recognize the figure as one of their own, and nor did the LEP. The former just ignored it.

"Cannon trolls. Fire at the LEP, strike the towers."

The trolls obeyed, as they didn't have much more of a brain to do otherwise.

When Holly saw that the trolls were beginning to load their cannons and when they all simultaneously fired, their shots widely scattered. Some of them collided with cliffs, others just plopped into the orange sand. But one of them sailed straight toward Holly, and when a 120 mile per hour cannonball is rushing at you, you'd probably be frozen to the spot.

Not much in her training covered giant metal objects flying at you and at the speed it was flying at you, all she could hope for was for it to be quick. Hopefully.

Right before it was about to hit her, the figure in the crater ran so fast that he was just a blur and grabbed the cannonball out of the air.

Holly manages to blink once before daring to say anything.

"Who are you?"

Before asking any more questions though, she observed the figure before her. It had body armor so large that it should have been at least an inch thick armor. But she looked at a gun on each shoulder of the giant before her. They were TG-1 models. The realization struck her.

"Artemis."

A deep mechanical voice responded.

"Yes?"

Holly could only realize that Artemis wouldn't have made this without reason. But the reason wasn't important. For now.

Mulch was out of his cuffs, and instantly ran over to Artemis.

"Wow. Mud boy's all grown up."

Holly's confusion was beginning to mingle with the chaotic air.

"How? What?"

"The TG-1 was only part of my big project."

Artemis threw the cannonball away, and it hit one of the trolls.

"You see, after I was about to show you…this, I decided that IT should be kept a secret. In case if the situation gets resolved."

"How did you build this?"

"Same material as that of the TG-1, but a lot more advanced."

By the time he finished the sentence, the entire army of the dead was swamping the LEP. Fairies everywhere were getting cruelly beaten down by the dead. Some of them were torn apart by trolls.

Artemis turned around and looked at the four figures in the middle of the swarm of the dead and spirits.

* * *

"Hey, look guys!" Injis cried out to some of his comrades as Artemis began to initiate conversation with Holly. Deimos's teeth were grinding and his nails were digging into his palm with rage, because he didn't need to guess who was in that armor. Nu' Taruk didn't need to refer to his age to know what was going on.

"Bealklor."

The titan who was referenced stepped up and waited for any command.

"Kill it."

* * *

Bealklor turned into a falcon and after flying to a position above Artemis, transformed into a giant wolf and tried to ravage his armor. Artemis grabbed one of Bealklor's paws and threw him into the air, only to have both of his TG-1's shot him repeatedly.

But Deimos used this as a distraction, and football style slammed into Artemis while using his claws to slash his armor. Artemis didn't even budge his position, nor was there any damage to his armor. He grabbed Deimos's head and after bringing it close to his face, he muttered. "This is for Butler." Artemis punched Deimos with his other hand with earth-cracking force, and activated flame throwers attached to his wrists. After cooking Deimos to a medium rare level, he threw him back into the sands. Injis didn't attempt to even hit Artemis, because he was busy with random LEP officers trying to subdue him.

* * *

Artemis ran, his hope for success overtaking his normal mind, as the evil plague of war overtook him. His mind went numb, as a troll tried to skewer him, only to stare at its broken tusks in dismay.

Artemis grabbed it's head, and kneed it so hard that the troll was flung backward. You had to feel bad for it.

While Artemis was looking around in observation though, Nu' Taruk melted out of the sand and placed his hand on the shoulder portion of the armor.

"One rule of war, child." A bright flash of light emitted from Artemis's shoulder, and Nu' Taruk stepped away.

"Never turn your back to the enemy, for they will kill you."

Artemis tried to throw a punch at Nu' Taruk, but he realized that all of the joints were terribly contorted and effectively made him incapable to move at all, except for his head.

"How?"

"Mr. Fowl, I have unlimited control over the alchemistic properties of any substance in this terrestrial plane. I merely changed the shape of your armor joints, and I have melted them together. And now,"

Nu' Taruk touched the sand, and he began to change the air flow in the orange-pale surrounding Artemis to turn it into quicksand.

"When you go a hundred meters in sand, I will stop the flow and you will get crushed with the pressure. Good day."

Nu' Taruk finished his sentence with a snort of satisfaction, and also turned the only solid sand under Artemis into quicksand. Holly saw all of this happen and broke off a large branch to try to pull Artemis out. Holly's face was streaming tears, as she feared that she would lose a friend, even if that friend was a liar, a relative jerk, and at times cold.

Artemis knew and could partially feel Holly's desperation, but could not do anything to help himself or comfort her.

Artemis's head only turned around and he saw Holly doing everything to try to save him, even using her wings to try to pull him out.

"Holly, don't. I will be back. Trust me."

Holly tried to do anything, but she realized that it was ultimately useless. Right when she was about to give up thoug, she had an idea. She hovered back onto the edge of the quicksand, and after grabbing an incinerator pack, she activated it and threw it at Artemis.

Nu' Taruk just looked on, as if the LEP Captain just went mad.

The pack activated, and it literally turned the quicksand into glass with the massive surge of heat. Artemis looked as his waist was encased in glass, and Holly gave a short sigh of relief.

"Genius. But…"

Nu Taruk touched the glass, to turn it into millions of individual pieces of glass powder. The glass just made Artemis sink even faster. The helmet rotated to try to look at Holly, only to be halted because of its design. If Artemis's face was visible, it would probably shown his secret despair as well. Nu' Taruk's smugness could show from his eye.

"Better luck next time."

Artemis looked upward at the sky, and waited for his last sight of the world to go dark. The last sounds that he would hear on the surface would be the screaming of some fairies, while the evil roars of the dead begun to blur.

In less than a second, it all went dark.

* * *

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	12. Chapter 12: Memoirs of a Dead Man

_Got the next chappie literally hot off the keyboard. It took me a while since I was working on lauching my other one, so yeah... -_- Anyways, check out my profile, because it has plans for my future fics. I also want at least 3 more reviews. Enjoy! -LinkinYM_

_"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned..."_

Chapter 12

Holly couldn't believe it. At times, she felt that he should die, never to be heard from again. But as she watched the metal helmet sink into the ground like a mole, she realized that she never even said any greetings to him. Never apologize about punching him, or tell him her feelings.

Not even a farewell.

* * *

Right when she saw Artemis disappearing among glass shards, Holly turned and glared at Nu' Taruk with a rage that made Mulch, who wasn't too far away, flinch in fear.

"You evil freak." Holly calmly began to walk to Nu' Taruk, who slightly slid his feet backwards.

All of her hate towards the abomination in front of her made her radiate with magic, and blue sparks of magic began to fly furiously.

"I have killed more of your kind in my life, than that of any other. What makes you think that when none of them managed to kill me, will let you even touch me?"

When Holly was a short distance away, she pulled her Neutrino out, and coldly responded. "Were any of them half as pissed as I am?"

The blue sparks around her strangely turned red, and she ran with godly speed towards Nu' Taruk, who only managed to jump out of the way, partly because of surprise her speed, and partly out of the thrill of a new opponent worthy of being a match. Holly dug her heels into the sand to halt her sliding, and fired super charged beams of lasers at Nu' Taruk.

Nu' Taruk actually thought for a moment that the heat radiating from the lasers weren't because of a kinetic energy charger, but with her hate and rage towards him.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…" before he could finish, Holly took a punch that seemed to pack more power than what he thought was possible from her small figure. This made him just slide slightly backward and when he was about to look back up, Holly did an upper jaw punch that virtually pushed him into the air. When Nu' Taruk fell on the ground, Holly lost all sign that she was, well…Holly. She slammed her fists into his partially covered face, and his armored chest until blood started to fly, and she wasn't even sure whether it was hers or his.

When she was done though, Holly was heaving with the deprivation of oxygen after such an expending fight, and she could feel her magic severely drained with her excessive use of it to boost her strength.

But she was satisfied. That she could take as much revenge, that she could tell her adversary that the People aren't to be meddled with. Even as Nu' Taruk transmuted the metal in his arm to a sword and walked up to her, she was too tired to move. And she didn't even try.

All of the good times she had.

Getting kidnapped by him, stopping a revolution and a madman, stopping Koboi on three occasions, time travel, and even bringing the demons back. All of these memories.

Even as Trouble, who took a glimpse from fending away an undead goblin, yelled at her to wake up out of her madness, it was silent to her. Even as Vinyaya and Mulch yelled at her to run, it was lost in the wind.

She was engulfed in silence, and she waited for it to be over.

"You landed a hand on me. I appreciate that. But stop thinking that you are the only one who deserves act of charity and never got it." Nu' Taruk snorted with smugness, and a droplet of his blood fell on her nose as he raised her head with his hand.

* * *

The silence engulfing her was broken, as Holly was confused in the new landscape she was suddenly in.

She no longer heard the screams of fairies, nor heard the crunching footsteps of Nu' Taruk. She could only see a mist shrouded forest, seeming to be smothered with pine trees. The ground crunched with frost, and the mist smelled fresh. Anxiety and nervousness flooded her like an ocean.

She had no control over where she looked, but Holly instantly realized this was a memory, after seeing a hand that wasn't her own was visible, displaying the time.

8:16AM.

As the silent forest began to swirl around her, she heard a sound.

The footsteps made the frost crunch, but with a pleasant sound. A fairy, a bit taller than Holly, stepped out of the mist. As the silver hair of the fairy became visible to be real and not part of a hallucination, she knew who it was.

"Vinyaya."

Even when she spoke out, she wasn't sure whether she spoke out, or whether the person's memory did. It felt…synchronized.

"I'm glad that you could come along."

"I'm afraid that my father will catch us. I'm even more afraid about what will happen to you."

"Do not fear for me. I will be fine."

Vinyaya moved forward, as her white dress seemed to ripple with the wind that was slowly pushing the mist away.

"Vinyaya, I must ask of you for something."

With a whisper as silent as the wind, she responded.

"Yes?"

The point of view instantly changed at that moment, and Holly could now see both of them. She easily recognized Vinyaya, but she had difficulty knowing who was the other figure, obviously a man though. The man, with brown hair and blue eyes, spoke with a soft but firm voice.

"I love you very much. I want to spend to rest of my life with you." From his back, the man showed a bouquet of flowers, bound together by a ring made of silver.

"Will you marry me?"

Vinyaya took a step back in astonishment, but that mood instantly dissipated, replaced by a look of refusal.

"No."

Her cold response made the man only inquire, with a sensation of sadness. "Why?"

"Nu' Taruk. How can I marry a man who will put his greed before his own people."

She briskly turned around, and at that moment, Holly's point of view instantly went back into Nu' Taruk's, and at that moment, despair and sadness flooded him and Holly. Tears began to drop, but Holly also became unsure whether it was hers or his.

She saw Vinyaya disappear into the mist, and as she felt Nu' Taruk run forward, armed fairies came jumping out of the trees screaming,

"Burn the traitor!".

They pulled out strange looking contraptions, which had the appearance of a large hose connected to a tank. Before either Holly or Nu' Taruk knew it, they were engulfed in flames and ended up facing the sky. She could feel the searing heat threatening to burn him to the bone and shear his skin from his flesh, but some unexplainable reason, he was still alive. Her view changed once more, and she could see Vinyaya standing over to what looked like a charred corpse, and her tear drop slowly fell in what was either regret, pity, or both. The corpse was unconscious, but alive.

Right when the Fairy kill-team was about to end Nu' Taruk, Vinyaya spoke out.

"No. Leave him like that. The wolves will get to him."

"But he will remember this."

"Then mind-wipe him. Do it quickly."

After the mind wipe was done, the kill-team dressed in an awkward costume which made them look like leprechauns, fell back swiftly but efficiently. Vinyaya watched them disappear, and Holly watched as she put her hand on Nu' Taruk's chest, and pulled up the sun-shaped pendant. Right when she put it down, Vinyaya quickly turned and left.

As if someone pulled her by the scruff of the neck, Holly was thrown out of her little memory experience, and noticed that it fed all of that information to her in less than a second.

* * *

Nu' Taruk was less than ten steps away from her, and each of his footsteps no longer crunched the sands but sounded more like booms.

Holly's hearing was slightly deafened as the large cannons fired and the screaming returned, but she was ready for death's embrace.

"It was quite a pleasure to know you, Holly Short. But alas, all thing come to an end."

* * *

Nu' Taruk relished this moment. To finally fight and end an opponent worthy of his fighting. But also to torture her with her sorrow, and show that she isn't the only one who experienced it. But right when he struck her, someone stopped him. "What the...?"

* * *

Nu' Taruk raised his sword-arm but even as it struck, the only thing it managed to cut through was the tip of her ear. Holly thought whether this was some kind of his sick joke, to make fun of her sorrow over such a loss of a friend. Holly felt blood slowly seeping out of her ear wound, and it dripped onto the sand, staining the orange sand red with her blood. Holly took some time to look at her own blood, and when she looked up, the sight that filled her eyes imprinted a strange concoction of relief and confusion in her.

Nu' Taruk's sword was less than an inch away from her face, and the only thing stopping it from going further was a large Eurasian man. One of him arms was holding Nu' Taruk back by the throat, while the other was restraining the sword arm.

"I don't think my charge will appreciate it if you kill his friend." And from behind him, a teenage Irish boy stepped out with one hand out stretched to help her up.

"Are you okay Holly?"

* * *

_Read and Review!_


	13. Chapter 13: Blood drops and Pendants

_Super sorry about the late update guys!!! :P I was busy with my other one and...yeah. Anyways, this is very close to finishing, and I will publish another chapter by the time i have 5 more reviews. Read and Review. So enjoy! -LinkinYM_

_"No matter the price, none will be able to outweigh human greed.__"_

Chapter 13

As Butler snapped Nu' Taruk's arm and pushed him down to the ground, Holly ran up to Artemis who had a slight look of content. When she approached him she just hugged him right away, and just asked.

"How?"

"Simple really. After I departed, I had Butler leave the Fowl manor with the jet and meet me near here. Then I took off the armor and remotely controlled it from this." Artemis held up a wristwatch, complete with a arm-long touch screen. "Pity that the suit was destroyed though." Artemis looked back at Holly, expecting an overjoyed face, but got a punch to the face.

Butler didn't bother to intervene, as he thought Artemis deserved a lesson and the fact that he was busy with Nu' Taruk. As Artemis snapped his nose painfully back into place, Holly just responded with an infuriated expression.

"That was for making me worry like crazy." Then she kissed him on the cheek.

"And that was for saving me." She curtly turned after hearing another yelp and saw that Butler was literally locked in mortal combat with Nu' Taruk.

His Sig Saur was stopping Nu' Taruk's sword from cleaving him in half, and Nu' Taruk had a gun barrel shoved in his face. Butler quickly pushed his opposition away, while blasting away with his monster of a pistol. The rounds just studded into Nu' Taruk's body, and the metal pieces in his chest blocked them. Nu' Taruk transformed his sword into a giant metal fist and punched Butler with the force of a sledge hammer, only to miss and shove his fist deeply into the ground. His eye glared at butler standing before him, and hissed.

"And just what do you think you are going to do, bodyguard? Keep on fighting until the end of time, against an opponent who won't die?"

_Not for long you won't._ Artemis just nodded to Butler and ran straight toward a rat-like figure.

Injis, who just impaled a demon on one of his knives, could hear Artemis's approaching footsteps with his large ears, laced with grit and determination.

_I dare you to charge me kid. I dare you. _

As her caring side took over, Holly could only run toward Artemis and scream at him.

"What are you doing!?"

"To do my part." He bravely ran toward Injis, knowing that he only had one chance at it. The only clue he gave to Holly was a wink, and ran straight for Injis's tail.

Holly became filled with uncertainty and doubt, but somehow knew what Artemis was going to do.

_Just don't die for real._

* * *

Artemis kept on running, his straight business man pants getting soiled with sand. He dodged undead fairies and LEP soldiers, while ramming straight for his main objective.

Injis's nose twitched, and he could smell Artemis running at him. He rolled his eyes, just being content with the fact that a teenage boy was trying to assault him.

_So much for this kid being a genius. _"Hello kiddo."

Injis turned around and threw a knife at Artemis while simultaneously teleporting next to him. Artemis barely dodged the knife by dropping low, but couldn't stop Injis from using his tail to knock him clean off his feet.

"What were you trying to do back there, huh?" Injis just lowered himself while still on his feet, and tilted his head while looking at Artemis.

_Get closer…_

"Last time I saw you, you were releasing me? Eh? Well I'll just return that favor." He pulled out a ritual knife out of his pocket, shaped like a B. "Don't worry. It will end really quick. Trust me."

_NOW!_ Right when he was about eviscerate Artemis, his quarry pulled out his own knife slashed Injis's left ankle.

"Ow! God damnit you stupid…" Artemis used this opportune moment to slide between Injis's legs and run. He was silently praying that Holly knew what to do. Because if she didn't, well, he would be dead.

* * *

Holly took careful aim, as she knew that the Neutrino wasn't meant for such long distance shooting. She stopped her breath and slowed her heartbeat, letting her gun stop moving.

_This had better __work._

Holly's finger tightened around the trigger, and squeezed. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see whether it struck properly, while squeezing beads of sweat away as well. But her aim was true, and it hit the mark.

* * *

Injis turned around in fury, as Artemis got away from him with a simple party trick of a move. The kid didn't seem to do anything except... Injis felt a bit lighter and realized that something very important was missing. His pendant.

"You son of a bitch! I'ma gonna kill you!"

Artemis was running as fast as he could, and in his left hand was a knife, in his other was the pendant.

Injis clasped his palms together quickly with frustration, not even bothering to chase Artemis. With ancient words flowing out of his mouth, the ground began to shake. It shook with his fury and his intent to get Artemis, and a structure began to rise from the ground. It was made of wood and steel, painfully contorted together to create the crude form of a statue. The gargoyle, with the appearance of a humanoid bat, screamed to life when the green mist surrounding it dissipated. It shook its head to brush off excess material and turned to Injis for orders.

"Get the kid. Retreive my pendant and kill him." The gargoyle didn't any more instructions and launched itself into the air, screaming with an unholy screech as it dive bombed toward a running Artemis.

* * *

Right when the unearthly scream pierced Artemis, it filled him with thoughts of terror.

It made him see terrifying visions, all pointing to his death, or the death of someone he cares for. He saw Holly getting ripped in half, Butler getting blown apart, Mulch being eviscerated…

While fear tried to take him over, to grip him in its claws, he shrugged it off and kept running to his next target: Bealklor.

The LEP around him were all crouched in fear, as terrifying visions also took their minds into madness. At least there was a good part and bad part about this. The great part about this was that he had a lot less obstacles to dodge.

But the bad part was, that he was a pretty clear target for the gargoyle.

Artemis ran a new plan in his head.

_Assuming that the creature that's chasing me relies on sound to find me, maybe creating a loud enough noise will disorient it…_ He knew that he had to act fast, so he reached into a pocket of a crippled LEP soldier and pulled out a sonix grenade. Artemis kept on running, while putting a timer sequence on the grenade.

_Five seconds should be sufficient. _He knew that there were no second chances this time. If he's dead, he's dead.

* * *

Holly was off in the distance, covering her ears that were beginning to bleed with the frequency that the gargoyle was screaming at. While covering one ear with her hand and the other with her shoulder, she repeatedly shot the gargoyle. When her finger felt numb with shooting, she fell over while screaming, trying to get the horrid images out of her head.

All she could see now was her mother at her deathbed, with a crying Holly next to her. It repeated it over and over, tormenting Holly until she started to cry in both pain and sadness.

The worst part was that the gargoyle kept on going for Artemis, completely ignoring Holly's shots. Before dropping into unconsciousness, the last thing that Holly saw was Artemis running, with the gargoyle less than a foot behind him.

_Run, Arty, Run._

* * *

_NOW!_

Artemis dropped the sonix grenade, and ran even faster, just as an extra measure.

**Five. **All of his hopes were on that grenade now, and there was no stopping.

**Four.** The digital timer on the grenade counted down and the gargoyle was right behind it.

**Three. **Artemis jumped and hid behind an LEP soldier body for protection, donning its helmet to protect his ears.

**Two.** The gargoyle crash landed, and looked at the grenade in slight surprise, and slight annoyance.

**One. BWAANG.** The sonix grenade detonated, but not with the traditional exploding sound. It made a strange Bwaang, and silence followed, to be followed yet again with the sound of constant explosion. The shockwave it made propelled Artemis to his target, while the gargoyle was sufficiently disoriented because of it.

He was glad in a way, that he was alive for one part, and that his target also got severely bleeding ears because of the grenade.

Bealklor looked at Artemis who landed at his feet, and with bleeding ears, he spoke coldly.

"You have succeeded in rupturing my hearing organs, human. I believe the best course of action will be…" And Bealklor turned into a snake. His writhing body tried to hypnotize Artemis, by making exquisite motions. As his body got bigger and bigger, he slowly turned into a basilisk.

"To consume you."

But Artemis got what he wanted and all he needed was one more with their pendants. Right when Bealklor was about to eat Artemis though, a grey blur rushed by and body slammed Bealklor down. With all of his strength, Butler was trying hard to hold Bealklor and when he turned into a chimera, Butler yelled at Artemis.

"GO!" Artemis became completely unsure whether it would work now, as so many things went out of his calculations. No matter how much he could have calculated it, you can't calculate human nature.

* * *

_Read and Review!_


	14. Chapter 14

_Sorry guys that this was about 5 months late, but this is the last chapter. Hope you enjoyed the story, and read my other ones too. Thanks! I don't own Artemis Fowl. There, a disclaimer. -LinkinYM_

Chapter 14+Aftermath

* * *

Deimos watched the entire battle unraveling before his eyes and lowered the rim of his fedora hat to block some sand. Even as multitudes of fairies were screaming at him to get on the ground and put his hands up, he only took a good breath of air before ripping their hearts out. "Oh, yes. There will be blood."

He dropped the bodies right before the sonix grenade wave hit him and while his eardrums were exploding, his hat fell off. "What was that?"

His pitch black eyes looked into the horizon, and saw a small figure running away from a large bat creature slowly regaining its composure.

"Hmm. Injis finally managed to summon Blutsauger. Now this will get interesting." Deimos made a strange clicking sound and the gargoyle looked up and instantly flew over to him. "Be my steed." He whispered, and he jumped onto its back.

From a distance Injis also looked up and yelled, "Hey, I get credit for that!"

Artemis knew his last target. The one responsible for Butler's near-death experience, and the possible killer of thousands of innocent fairies, dragged to their death. He recited a passage from a text, which supposedly had the key to kill the First Eight.

"Upon ye dagger of silver, get the Eight's blood onto it. Flick the blood unto the pendants, and their damnation will be eternal."

He knew that it all needed to go to plan, for it to work. He ran, hopping over fairy corpses and dodging undead fairies all around him. As the wisps all tried to grasp him, their constant exposure to the outer world beyond the castle was making them slowly disintegrate. Their eyes were hollow, but to Artemis, they showed a strange sense of desperation.

A mixture of desire, hopelessness, and loss.

As each of the ones Artemis dodged was blown into mist, his hand felt cold. He pulled it back, to see that all of his hand's flesh was gone. It didn't hurt but as it regenerated, he realized. So this is the image of failure.

He looked up, to see the gargoyle dropping towards him, but this time, with a person on its back. "Deimos."

* * *

When the boy was close enough, Deimos jumped off of the gargoyle and landed cleanly on his feet only a few meters behind Artemis. "So, boy. We meet again."

He began to circle Artemis, looking at the ground in partial pleasure of finding a person who outwitted him once before.

"It hurts you know. Getting burnt with a car exhaust pipe." While he circled around Artemis, he extended his teeth in a threatening position as well as sharpening his claws.

"All of that exhaust in my systems. Do you have any idea of how difficult it would be to purge myself of it?" When he took a menacing step towards Artemis, the latter backed up but held his calm, and his knife.

"Oh, you want to do a little fencing, eh kid?" Artemis kept quiet and let his weapon creep over his shoulder.

"No. A little paintball." Right when Deimos was about to slice him to ribbons, his TG-1 popped out of his shoulder and shot Deimos in the head, instantly knocking him out.

"Now, Holly!" But when his help didn't come, he realized that the shockwave of the grenade and the shriek of the gargoyle must have knocked her out. "D' Arvit!"

Artemis was about to run towards Deimos, when the latter was holding him up by the throat.

"I am very sorry, but your girlfriend isn't coming to save you."

"Holly isn't my…"

"Oh, don't worry, I've seen how all this will end. Between you and her of course. One of my fellow Eight was victim to it." But right when he took a pause, Artemis slashed Deimos's arm with the silver knife, and made Deimos drop him.

"Augh! What the…" As Deimos tried to heal his arm, it wouldn't heal. Instead, it kept degenerating his flesh.

"You thought that you knew the rules inside out. But you were wrong." Artemis held the silver knife dripping with Deimos's blood. "After taking a quick look at the Book, it mentioned a method to kill you." He turned the knife and pointed it downward, toward the bronze pendants. "The Soul and essence of the Eight are forever bound in the pendants. If the pendant is destroyed, so will they." Artemis flicked the knife, and a drop of Deimos's blood dropped onto the pendant.

"Boy, nothing can destroy those pendants."

"Except for a silver knife with the blood of the Ancients on it." But right when Artemis was about to stab the pendants, Deimos dashed with incredible speed to grab Artemis's wrist and crush it, forcing him to release the pendants and knife. With a menacing growl of a voice, he spoke to Artemis.

"I rise, you fall."

"Yeah, right."

_

* * *

_

The additional voice surprised Deimos and when he turned around, he felt a sharp pain through his body. He also saw Holly, stabbing the knife through the stack of pendants. Artemis looked in amazement, as what looked like a sword of light was bursting out of Deimos's chest. Deimos was about to snap Artemis's little neck, when the sword turned into a hand and began to pull Deimos into the hole.

"DAMN YOU BOY! I WILL RETURN FROM HELL AND KILL YOU!" Artemis watched patiently as the man, the very same man who caused thousands of lives to be lost on that very same day, had his limbs pulled inward along with all of his internal organs. The sudden force of the implosions caused Deimos to collapse, and his blood released spattered all over Artemis.

"Well, that was a bit more explosive than I thought. Or imagined." Artemis tried to get up, but his crushed wrist prevented that. As explosions of light spread across the battlefield, it symbolized that the Eight are now dead and the war is over. He could see Holly smiling with closed eyes, and Artemis was glad that his friends were safe. But the pain of his broken wrist took control over him, and he lapsed into unconsciousness.

_

* * *

_

A few hours later

Stabbing the pendants. Collapsing. Unconsciousness. It was all that Holly remembered. But the next place she woke up in was a medical facility in Haven. "What…happened?"

"Miss Short, you expended too much magic in a short amount of time. It caused you to go unconscious."

"Oh, I see." The centaur doctor was standing next to a medical warlock, and took some notes down onto a pad.

"Miss Short, we recommend that you don't use magic for a while. It may cause negative effects to your body. And until the next possible time that you will do a ritual…" The doctor pressed a button on his notepad and it sent his medical analysis to Holly's record. "Find a way to relax. You'll find your muscles very sore when you leave in a week."

The doctor and the warlock left, and Holly looked out of the window.

_Artemis. Hope you're doing okay._

_

* * *

_

Simultaneous to the above

Artemis woke up in Fowl Manor, and realized that he was lying on the couch, the same place where he started. "Artemis, you woke up."

"Ah, Butler. How did we get here?"

"You collapsed in Autstralia. After the warlocks there patched you up we flew back by the jet."

"And the suit?"

"Self-detonation sequence followed as planned."

"Good. We can't risk having the LEP take it."

"What now?"

Artemis stood and walked over to the window. "I wonder when we will meet again." _Of course I mean you, Holly._

_

* * *

_

A month later...

"The public is asking many questions about what happened during the event of last month's war. The Lower Elements Police have not disclosed any information to the public, but all that we know is that the casualty number is much greater than that of the Bwa-Kell revolution. This is John Cocaua, of Lower Elements News."

Holly turned the television off, and got her gear on for work. She thought that it wasn't right for the LEP to hide information. But if it was to protect the people, it was an exception. But something else crossed her mind.

__

When will we meet again?


End file.
